What does Six of Cups mean for career and work?

A former colleague or employer reappearing. Work connected to children, to heritage, or to something you used to do.

It favours the return: the old contact who has an opportunity, the field re-entered after years away, the skill picked up again. The tradition reads professional networks as long-lived and this card is where that pays.

Reversed, a career sustained by a reputation that is now historical. That is a real and awkward position, and the card names it without unkindness.

Nostalgia, reunion, somebody from the past returning. Simple generosity, given without an eye on what comes back.

Also reconnecting with what you were like before you learned to be careful, which the tradition treats as retrieval rather than regression. Something was available to you once that is available again.

In an advice position it favours the uncalculated gesture: the message sent for no reason, the gift with no occasion, the kindness that gains you nothing. The card is old-fashioned about this and unembarrassed.

Stuck in the past. Idealising something that was not that good, which is the reversal's speciality and is nearly impossible to see from inside.

Memory edits. A period recalled as golden was usually mixed at the time, and the card reversed describes a comparison being run against a version that never existed.

Or, more positively, finally moving forward and leaving it behind. Both readings are common, and the surrounding cards decide which. The second is frequently a relief that has been years arriving.

Upright: nostalgia, innocence, memory, reunion, generosity

Reversed: stuck in the past, idealising, moving on, naivety

• What am I remembering more fondly than it deserves?
• What did I do freely as a child that I now do only if it pays?